Patriots, Jets find themselves in familiar positions

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

Monday

Nov 19, 2018 at 5:52 PM

At 7-3 and atop the AFC East, the Patriots travel to MetLife Stadium for a game this Sunday with the New York Jets, who at 3-7 are mired in the division cellar again. Patriots players insist that records don't matter when these two teams get together, however.

FOXBORO – Remember the talk following their 48-17 rout of the Detroit Lions in their season opener that maybe, just maybe, this was the year that the New York Jets would finally challenge the Patriots in the AFC East?

Well, that lasted a week, long enough for the Jets to return home and lose to Miami, 20-12, to trigger a three-game losing streak.

The Jets rebounded from that to win two straight to reach mediocrity, at 3-3, but as December nears it’s business as usual in Florham Park.

Losers of four in a row, the Jets (3-7) are mired in the AFC East cellar, four games behind the division-leading Patriots (7-3) heading into the teams’ meeting on Sunday, an eighth consecutive non-playoff finish in their sights.

This weekend’s game will be played at MetLife – and therein lies the problem where the Patriots are concerned.

Regardless of the won-loss records of the teams involved, the Jets have played the Patriots tough in East Rutherford, N.J., of late, winning two of the last five meetings there, the games decided by a collective 22 points, the most lopsided being a 26-20 New York victory in overtime in 2015.

“It’s like a rivalry game in college,” Patriots special teams captain Matthew Slater said Monday. “The records don’t matter. You know, UCLA (Slater’s alma mater) just beat USC this weekend (34-27) and they have a better record than us and on paper they have better players than us, but we came to play, you get emotions running, you’re not afraid of that guy because you’ve seen him, you grew up with him.

“In our case, we’ve played these guys twice a year every year. They’re not afraid of us. They don’t care what we’ve accomplished or who people think we are, they’re going to come out and play us tough. We expect the same thing on Sunday.”

Wide receiver Chris Hogan agreed, saying it’s another in the never-ending trail of “throw the records out the window” type of games the Patriots play.

“I think that’s kind of the story with a lot of teams when they come play us, but the Jets specifically, they’re a physical team,” said Hogan. “Going to MetLife, that’s always a tough environment to go and play there and defensively they’re playing really well. They’re very physical and it will be a good challenge for us and we’re going to have to get to work, get to know these guys, and I think everyone’s pretty excited coming off the bye recharged and ready to get to work.”

To be sure, these Jets have had their moments this year.

There was that 31-point beatdown of the Lions that christened former Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia into the head coaching ranks. There were the back-to-back wins over Denver and Indianapolis last month that saw them put up 76 points during that two-game outburst that brought them to .500.

Currently, though, there are the four straight losses that took them into last week’s bye, a stretch that saw them average 10.8 points per game and put up just six in a 13-6 loss at Miami followed by an utterly embarrassing 41-10 loss to Buffalo at home in a game that saw them fall behind, 31-3, at halftime – to a Bills team that in Matt Barkley was starting its fourth different quarterback in 10 games, no less.

The vibe in New York seems to be that fourth-year head coach Todd Bowles (now 23-25 lifetime) will last the season, but if he does, he shouldn’t last much longer than that.

As you might gather from their record, the Jets don’t do anything particularly well: They rank 29th in total offense, 20th in rushing, 29th in passing and 23rd in points scored per game and are 19th in total defense, 20th against the run, 17th versus the pass and 23rd in points allowed per game.

The Jets’ touchdown-to-interception ratio is in the minus column. Rookie Sam Darnold, the third overall choice in this year’s draft (the franchise’s highest-drafted quarterback since they made Joe Namath the top selection in the 1965 AFL Draft), has thrown all 11 of the team’s TD passes with 14 interceptions and has regressed, not progressed, as the season’s gone on (two TDs with seven interceptions in his last three games). Josh McCown, his 39-year-old journeyman backup, stepped in for him against the Bills (Darnold is nursing a foot injury) and failed to throw for a TD while tossing two picks.

The Jets had their moments offensively earlier in the year, putting up 48 points in their season-opening romp at Detroit and a combined total of 76 points in back-to-back home wins over Denver and Indianapolis to improve to 3-3, but since then the Jets have mustered just 43 points in losing their last four to Minnesota, Chicago, Miami and Buffalo.

Wide receiver Quincy Enunwa leads the Jets in receptions with a pedestrian 29 catches for 345 yards and one touchdown. Isaiah Crowell (114 carries for 552 yards, a 4.5-yard average with six touchdowns) and Bilal Powell (80 carries for 343 yards, a 4.3-yard average with no TDs) top the Jets’ ground game.

Defensively, Avery Williamson (a team-leading 78 tackles with three sacks) and Darron Lee (61; he leads the team in interceptions with three he’s returned for 82 yards and a touchdown) have combined for 139 tackles from the inside linebacker position and with 67 Jamal Adams is an aggressive strong safety.

Outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins leads the team in sacks with five.

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